Alienware Aurora ALX-XL

Sometimes you get a chance you can't say no to, so that's what happened to me.
After some discussions and exchanging ideas with Dell, I am very happy to announce to you a build with a super case. It's allready beautiful But I'm gonna give it a try

The Alienware Aurora desktop.

And not only the case, but a complete configuration with the following components:

looking good, i already admired alienware case design for the longest time but really hated how they priced their systems. really curious to see what direction this goes and how much better you can make it look

looking good, i already admired alienware case design for the longest time but really hated how they priced their systems. really curious to see what direction this goes and how much better you can make it look

After playing some games and testing it was time to strip the case.
First the wiring, which is quite a lot in this case. But quite logical because all the gadgets.

PCB and a lot of cables for the lights

The PCB strip at the top for lighting and power pump

2 of these for the lighting behind the HDD bays

And some more cables

After all cables are removed, This is what's left ... for illumination

Also removed the Alienware mobo. Rams will by provided with black ram coolers later on.

Fan bracket for the swap bay

And the fanbracket for the GPU's

The HDD bays are easy to disassemble with screwdriver

Putting the SSD away for later

CPU cooler remains a beautiful item, so as previously mentioned this will be used again in this build later

Removed the midplate.

And mobo tray

Still dismanteling with only a screwdriver Also removed the PSU

Later on this will be black

And the cables which will be a challenge regarding the sleeve job

And removed the covers

Everything is stripped, so this is what's left

Time to think and mod. The idea is to put 2x 360 rads for the GPUs
This is not possible in the original case. Therefore I'am gonna raise the case using an old LL case where I have shortened the vertical bars and put it back together.

Mounted the Alienware Aurora on top and made a bracket around the lower part​. Because the lower case is smaller I had some space for the HDD cage to place it in the empty space.

For the sides I have cut a piece of aluminum and bent the curves in it.

Bent everything in the shapes of the lower strip on the existing side panel. This strip is where the new cover is going to be mounted on.

Done both sides and front.

After this cut out the radiators

All assembled and stick together with tape

Shiny

Made the covers black

And the end result after some sawing, filing, drilling, bending and pasting.

For the life of my I cant figure out why they have a PCB to power all of the extras in that case just to leave you swapping out AA batteries to play with some LEDs that are widely already available in 12V systems. Sorry that just seems slightly retarded to do in a case.

For the life of my I cant figure out why they have a PCB to power all of the extras in that case just to leave you swapping out AA batteries to play with some LEDs that are widely already available in 12V systems. Sorry that just seems slightly retarded to do in a case.

The modding is pretty sweet though!

Click to expand...

I think its for people that have their case open for modding, etc, need the light, but don't want to have it connected to the power.

I think its for people that have their case open for modding, etc, need the light, but don't want to have it connected to the power.

Click to expand...

But then there's corrosion - most of my kid's toys don't last until the next Christmas because of this. I own PC cases for over 3 years each, I'd end up taking these batteries out just so I don't have to worry about keeping an eye on them.